Jackleen de La Harpe has been the Executive Director of the Metcalf Institute for Marine and Environmental Reporting since it was established in 1997.

For the past 16 years, de La Harpe has been a science writer at the University of Rhode Island's Graduate School of Oceanography (GSO), and she was the editor of Maritimes, a URI marine and environmental research magazine. Before joining GSO, she had been a staff reporter at The Providence Journal.

de La Harpe, the Principal Investigator under the National Science Foundation grant to the Metcalf Institute to support this workshop, is a freelance writer and editor and a member of the Society of Environmental Journalists and of the National Association of Science Writers. She has organized numerous panels and workshops for the press focusing on science and journalism for SEJ, NASW, GSO, and the Metcalf Institute. She received her bachelors degree in environmental sciences and journalism from Western Washington University.